Abstract Although gait change is considered a useful indicator of severity in animal models of Parkinson's disease, systematic and extensive gait analysis in animal models of neurological deficits is not well established. The CatWalk-assisted automated gait analysis system provides a comprehensive way to assess a number of dynamic and static gait parameters simultaneously. In this study, we used the Catwalk system to investigate changes in gait parameters in adult rats with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions and the. | Chuang et al. Journal of Biomedical Science 2010 17 9 http content 17 1 9 I NSC The cost of publication in Journal of Biomedical Science is bourne by the National Science Council Taiwan. JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH Open Access Quantitative evaluation of motor function before and after engraftment of dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson s disease Chieh-Sen Chuang 1 2 Hong-Lin Su2 Fu-Chou Cheng3 Shan-hui Hsu4 Chi-Fen Chuang5 and Chin-San Liu 1 5 6 Abstract Although gait change is considered a useful indicator of severity in animal models of Parkinson s disease systematic and extensive gait analysis in animal models of neurological deficits is not well established. The CatWalk-assisted automated gait analysis system provides a comprehensive way to assess a number of dynamic and static gait parameters simultaneously. In this study we used the Catwalk system to investigate changes in gait parameters in adult rats with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions and the rescue effect of dopaminergic neuron transplantation on gait function. Four weeks after 6-OHDA injection the intensity and maximal area of contact were significantly decreased in the affected paws and the swing speed significantly decreased in all four paws. The relative distance between the hind paws also increased suggesting that animals with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions required all four paws to compensate for loss of balance function. At 8 weeks post-transplantation engrafted dopaminergic neurons expressed tyrosine hydroxylase. In addition the intensity contact area and swing speed of the four limbs increased and the distance between the hind paws decreased. Partial recovery of methamphetamine-induced rotational response was also noted. Introduction Parkinson s disease PD is the second most common neu-rodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer s disease. The worldwide prevalence is estimated to be 200 per 100 000 population 1 . Degeneration of dopamine neurons in the
